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These results suggest that circulating factors during pregnancy affect the cerebral endothelium to diminish EDHF and increase tone, an effect that may impact cerebrovascular resistance and control of blood flow in the maternal brain.

http://www.preeclampsia.org/pdf/oaprogress.pdf <--caution, .pdf file

So, eventually, it's research like this that will help figure out why preeclampsia patients start seizing. Something about our brain activity is disrupted as we get sicker, but only magnesium sulfate helps to reduce the frequency of the seizures. Regular seizure drugs don't work.

When samples of our blood are used to flood a dish of rat cerebral artery cells, those cells respond very differently from the response they have to blood from women whose pregnancies were proceeding normally. So one of the chemical proteins in our bloodstreams -- a "circulating factor" -- is also a signal to cerebral artery cells. (At least in rats. Likely in us too, though -- it's just that it's a lot harder to check in us than in rat cells.)

The researcher, Dr. Amburgey, also says, These experiments have been completed, and data analysis is ongoing. We hope to present this work at a national conference next year and plan on submitting a manuscript in the next few months. yay!

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